cided about referring a criminal investi- gation to an outside prosecutor would have enormous political consequences. From the start, Reno said simply that she would base her decision on the law and the legal facts. But when we spoke ear- lier this month she conceded that neither the law nor the facts were as clear as one might wish When I asked Reno if two experienced lawyers could reach opposite conclusions on the rightness of appoint- ing an Independent counsel-which is, re- markably, the case with Reno and Louis Freeh, the F.B.I. director-she sighed and said, "I think so." Last week, officials close to the inves- tigation told me that Reno had in fact de- cided not to name an outside counsel in the specific cases at hand, which involved the question of whether President Clin- ton and Vice-President Gore had violated the Pendleton Act of 1883 by soliciting campaign funds over the telephone from federal property. Rather, these officials said, Justice is likely to indict at least one lower-level person-the former Little Rock restaurateur Yah Lin ( Charlie) T ne- for campaign fund-raising violations, and perhaps will take other actions against more prominent figures in the future. A finding by Reno that the allegations of wrongdoing against the President, the Vice- President, and other senior officials are not "specific and credible" enough to warrant an outside investigation is likely to further enrage her critics and, in addi- tion, to telegraph to the country that the campaign-finance laws are not taken se- rIously. On the other hand, a decision to appoint an independent counsel would carry with it the potential to damage not only the legacy of President Clinton but also the future of his presumed heir, the Vice-President. The independent coun- sel Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investi- gation of what began as a small-time real-estate deal is now entering its fourth year, at a cost, so far, of more than twenty- five million dollars. One can only imag- ine what an inquiry into the entire fund- raising operation of the 1996 campaign would entail. Despite the political issues, and the inevitable criticism, few people sincerely doubt Reno's integrity. The question, however, seems to be whether good in- tentions are enough to run the Justice Department in an era when so man) political fights devolve into nasty legal showdowns. Reno's struggles sometimes seem like a test of whether a strong- willed, self-contained individualist- someone who seems almost out of place in the twentieth century-can prevail simply by doing what she sees as the right thing. Ironically, Reno is accused of protect- ing a President who, by most accounts, doesn't much like her. Indeed, after Clin- ton was reëlected, he let it be known that he wanted Reno to resign. Reno an- nounced that she planned to stay on nonetheless. Clinton, White House staff- ers say, didn't dare risk the political con- sequences of removing her, but, as Reno finishes her :fifth year in the job, she is still regarded as being so alien to the Clinton Administration that one of those closest to the President refers to her in private as the Martian. Reno certainly remains an unusually solitary person in gregarious official Wash- ington. The phrases insiders use to de- scribe her tend to focus on how out of place she is-"a different sort of animal" is one description-but such phrases may say less about the animal than about the zoo. Part of what makes Reno stand out, according to those who know her best, is that she appears to be indifferent to the judgment of others. Walter Dellinger, who served under Reno as Acting Solici- tor General and has returned to teaching law at Duke University, says, "I sit down here in North Carolina reading in the pa- per that mounting pressure makes it in- evitable that she will do this, or the op- posite, but neither of these observations makes any sense in Janet Reno's world." Reno lives alone in a small apartment a few blocks from the office, to which she walks each morning before seven and from which she usually returns home af- ter eight. Her weekends are devoted to work, reading, and outdoor rambles-hikes along the C. & O. CanaJ (she estimates that she has walked about a hundred miles to date), or paddling on the Poto- mac River in a snub-nosed version of a kayak called a Poke Boat. She also enJoys felling trees with a chainsaw. Her sister, Maggy Hurchalla, a former official in l\IIar- tin County, Florida, confirms that Reno finds this noisy pastime "more soothing than dealing with Congress." In Florida, where Reno was raised, she has many devoted friends; she re- mains close to her brother and sIster and their children. (Her parents are no longer alive.) But in Washington she functions REPRESENTED BY PRINCESS HOTELS INTERNATIONAl, INC P 41 , . t . -+ ":r : . , J- '; ',' . -ff: ,,' ' '. ,^ ".: ',,0- "oj ::. t>,{ IIM_" CALL YOUR TRAVEL AGENT OR 800-223-1818 o....qt otdsdthtfW:rlJ. AAA Five Dllmond Award ..... YOU CAN ALSO TAKE A DIP IN ONE OF OUR THREE POOLS. :' ," <> o^ : f' '"' .. " "'1 .JI!.. "" )". . . . '.:&>.o... >>"'''' ... ^"':" SCOTTSDALE PRINCESS tJ THE SOUL OF ARIZONA. THE HEART OF YOUR VACATION.